


Ask Box Author's Cut

by jacksgreysays (jacksgreyson)



Series: Tumblr Ask Box Events [4]
Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen, Katekyou Hitman Reborn!, Kingsman (Movies), Naruto, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Alternate Universe - Firefly Fusion, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Leverage Fusion, Alternate Universe - Princess Mononoke Fusion, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Alternate Universe- Canon Divergence, Future Fic, Gen, Multi, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-04 04:09:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 4,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11547186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jacksgreyson/pseuds/jacksgreysays
Summary: (originally posted on tumblr)





	1. Friendship Is A (Mutual) Con + Unwritten Headcanon, anonymous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> how each of the team were lead towards a life of crime

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> part of my [Friendship Is A (Mutual) Con](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6945079/chapters/19668433) 'verse

Naruto bounces around foster homes and orphanages, a troublemaker and ticking time bomb that no one wants to be liable for.

Stealing things is just another survival mechanism, an especially useful one that he hones over time.

He has no idea he’s following in his parents’ footsteps.

Not even after Jiraiya takes him in and trains him properly.

///

Shikako becomes a thief inside out: building security systems first before realizing it’s more fun to take them apart.

Still, she has the locksmith shop–a legal revenue stream and alibi–and as far as her family knows, she just has very clingy and very strange friends.

///

Sasuke isn’t a thief, he’s a retrieval specialist.

Dutiful second son trying to bring honor to his family in his own way. The military has uses for boys who can fight, boys who have morals that aren’t… set in stone.

If you love something and you’re good at it, why not get paid premium for it?

An Uchiha doesn’t steal, they acquire.

///

Kakashi’s father will forever be known in history as the biggest scandal in the art world.

People don’t care that Sakumo Hatake had created organizations to promote the creation and preservation of art. They don’t care that his foundation sends hundreds of students each year to school on scholarships. They forget that art museums around the world have him to thank for donations and improvements and, in some cases, their continued existence.

Sakumo Hatake produced and sold over a thousand forgeries before getting caught by Interpol.

There weren’t many avenues left for Kakashi to take.

///

Ever since she was little, Sakura has wanted to save the world.

There’s a lot of pain and cruelty–an endless, constant amount, she knows this–but that doesn’t mean she won’t still try to help.

Her hero is the head of Doctors Without Borders.

Sometimes doing what’s right isn’t what’s legal.

///

Tenzo is framed.

(Yamato will never say so out loud near Kakashi-taicho, in anticipation of the inevitable painting pun)

He is framed and kicked out of Interpol–not quite on the run from his coworkers, but highly aware that he is being watched. Any false step and they will take him down.

He knows who framed him–or, at least, on whose orders they were acting on–but he doesn’t know why.

(Sai does. He’s been ordered to make sure Yamato doesn’t figure it out.)


	2. Never Lookin' To Come Back + meeting Ino[-Shika-Cho], anonymous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> part of my [Never Lookin' To Come Back](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6945079/chapters/25575105) 'verse

When you join the brown coats, your past doesn’t matter. Who you were–who you used to be–where you came from? That doesn’t mean anything.

Everyone has secrets from their past.

The only thing that matters when you wear that brown coat is what you believe.

///

Akimichi has two moons, Nara and Yamanaka, both as important to the Alliance as their planet.

Also like their planet, the moons are ruled by respective clans, though by title they are ministers not chancellors.

The current Nara minister has two sons.

No one mentions anything about a daughter.

///

They’re on the moon of Nohara–closer to the Core than either Kiba or the captain like, tension high in their shoulders, the slightest misstep enough to make Akamaru growl–when Shino comes back with a passenger.

It’s not unusual for Shino to bring back passengers–given how long the Teacher as been on the ship, he’s practically a crew member by this point, never mind that he pays them–but this passenger isn’t the same as the others.

She’s got a wicked smile on her face for one–instead of the typical serene blankness of other practitioners of the Will of Fire–and she even has a last name.

A worryingly recognizable last name.

“We already have the Hyuuga chancellor’s missing daughter and her asshole of a cousin, I don’t see how anyone could be a bigger risk than that,” Kiba grouses, voices contained to the engine room for that extra privacy.

TenTen wasn’t exactly happy at being kicked out of her domain, but she hadn’t argued at the look on the captain’s face.

“We don’t exactly need word of that getting around to the Core, now do we?” Shikako snipes back, but it’s a moot point. Whether or not they take Yamanaka as a passenger, her keen eyes have already spotted the telltale features of one Hyuuga who normally wouldn’t be caught dead on a bucket of rust and bolts like this.

Kiba bares his teeth, “Why are you lying to me?”

///

In the system, the captain’s name is Shikako Heijo; the same name she used to sign up with the brown coats.

Why would it be anything else?

///

Kiba and the captain stomp out of the engine room towards the cargo hold where Shino and their potential passenger are politely chatting as if they were having a tea party and not surrounded by graffitied crates of dubious content, instead.

“We’re not heading any closer to the Core than this,” Shikako says, practically throwing down a gauntlet for the Yamanaka minister’s daughter.

“What a coincidence,” she says, smile gleaming and sharp, “neither am I.”

Kiba doesn’t understand why that makes Shikako bristle something fierce, but he’s still pretty annoyed by all the sidestepping. She was never half as resistant to the Hyuuga bastard on their ship, and as far as he knows, Yamanaka is going to leave after one trip.

Or at least he hopes so, they’re flying a ship, not running a halfway house.

She turns to him, hackles raised, “Your passenger, your problem,” she says before stomping away again.

Kiba huffs in response, off balance and unwilling to show it. “So where are you heading to, then?” he asks, because if he’s going to get some cargo on this boat then he ought to know where they’re headed.

Yamanaka’s smile has dimmed, shrunk into something soft and sad, eyes following after the captain. “The Katou moon,” she answers, “I’m looking for someone.”

Kiba shrugs, “Hey, we don’t need to know why you’re going, we just have to get you there.”

///

As it turns out, knowing who Yamanaka was looking for would have been welcomed information.

After all, it’s hard to stay beneath the ROOT’s radar when you’re on the trail of the last Senju.


	3. Shikaara Royalty!AU + when Ino found out, anonymous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the Shikaara Royalty!AU is from the [Ask Box Three Sentence Fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11397345?view_full_work=true)

Shikako tries to return to her seat without catching anyone’s notice–restless feet is no excuse for further international faux pas–but considering she’s sitting right next to Ino, there’s no escaping it.

Especially not when she stumbles right into her, eyes still dazed from the multitude of camera flashes. Shikako’s just a minor peer–those picture probably won’t end up in the news, right?

Ino lends her a steadying hand, one eyebrow raised in appraisement, “What were you doing?” she murmurs beneath her breath.

Shikako flushes, embarrassed again at the memory, “I just ran into someone,” she says. And looked like a total idiot, she doesn’t add.

Ino holds a stare for a beat, Shikako’s cheeks turning further red, before letting the matter drop.

She’ll find out soon enough, anyway.

///

“The prince!” Ino shouts, bursting through Shikako’s bedroom door without any hesitation. Cruelly, she walks over to the window and flings open the curtains. “You ran into the prince?”

Shikako groans, curling into her pillows and away from the light.

“Shikako!”

There’s an indignant flapping of paper, before Ino heaves a sigh and pounces.

She’s not heavy, but with a high enough trajectory and the element of surprise, Shikako’s breath leaves her in a rush, “No…”

“You didn’t tell me you ran into Wind Country’s prince. Spill now or else,” Ino threatens, yanking a pillow from beneath Shikako’s head and brandishing it like a weapon.

What torments could she possibly inflict that is crueler than waking someone up?

Well… it is Ino.

“Wind Country has two princes,” she says instead, just to be contrary.

Ino smacks her with the pillow. “You know who I’m talking about! The dreamboat with the gorgeous eyes and perfect cheekbones,” another smack, “Just what happened?”

“Nothing happened… I just bumped into him, said sorry, and then returned to my seat?” Confused, Shikako finally cracks open her eyes.

In Ino’s hand is a newspaper, the front page dominated by a color photo of Shikako and the younger Wind Country prince, his arm around her waist, her hand on his shoulder: they had literally bumped into each other and just barely managed not to fall to the ground in a flail of limbs. That’s all.

Ino looks less gleeful, now; she hands over the paper, “Not according to this.”


	4. Stars Also Dream + Unwritten Headcanons, anonymous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> some background headcanons for Stars Also Dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> part of my [Stars Also Dream](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7794919/chapters/17782258) 'verse

They come down from the sky on a metal ship; just the two of them and their strange armored ninken.

They want to talk to the leader of the planet.

Father laughs, unsurprising. How do they not know that the world is at war–has always been at war? There are no leaders beyond clan heads and whatever shaky holds the daimyo have on the land.

Still, Father lets them stay for a time; the Senju are not called the clan with a thousand skills for nothing.

When an enemy squadron attacks, they defeat them all easily, just the two of them, with their swords made of lightning.

They leave afterwards, say they will send people in the future–to talk when the world has learned peace.

Tobirama learns that peace isn’t weakness–it’s about being strong enough to not need to fight.

///

When you are eight, you are brought in to speak to the lead teaching Jedi, as all members of your clan are. You are asked about your future plans, about what comes after being an initiate.

Every eight year old at the Temple wants to be a Jedi Knight; to be otherwise is considered a failure.

But you don’t think that’s true.

“An Archivist,” you say, because all of your clan mates have no doubt said they want to become padawans and you’re sure the lead teacher is bored of it. And plus, it’s always better to keep your options open; you’ve always been interested in Jedi traditions, and becoming a curator of them would be a contented existence. “There is still wisdom to be had from our history.”

The lead teacher nods, accepting. There is no change in expression on hir face, which you ought to have expected.

You are dismissed and so you go to the Room of a Thousand Fountains, letting the waters calm you.

You don’t become an Archivist.

///

In the Crystal Cave of Ilum’s Jedi Temple, you undergo The Gathering.

Like many padawan before you it is a test of patience, resourcefulness, and resilience.

It is painfully cold.

You don’t let that stop you.

You are searching for the kyber crystal that will be the heart of your lightsaber, there is no rushing it.

And except for the cold, you don’t think it’s such a terrible experience, the cave practically sings to you–the earth and stone more calming than even the waters of the Coruscant fountains.

When you emerge, kyber crystal in hand, Master Bant looks relieved and proud.

Your lightsaber is a comforting deep green.


	5. Remember To Sleep + Unwritten Headcanon, anonymous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi in this cyberpunk 'verse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> part of my Remember to Sleep 'verse which is a cyberpunk!AU and has been referenced previously in the [a softer ask box](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11406585/chapters/25549719) event

A private detective doesn’t walk anywhere. They slink and sidle and cruise around, or maybe they wander or stumble into a case, or, maybe, they’re running from something.

This is very much so a fleeing for one’s life situation, Kakashi thinks, ducking behind a parked car just in time to hear a bullet whizz overhead. Ah, scorned spouses, they never want to hear they’re being cheated on and yet they always hire him to get the proof. It’s not like he takes skeezy, voyeuristic photos for his own enjoyment.

That’s what his Icha Icha collection is for.

More whistling sounds, more shots, and Kakashi sighs. Lazily, he tracks the bullet paths with his eye, the trajectories as clear as if every bullet had a bright red ribbon tied to it.

Most of them end up bouncing uselessly against a dumpster, some cars, the concrete walls–gun possession clearly does not equal marksmanship–but one of them flies true and straight, out of the alley and into the street.

For a moment, Kakashi thinks it’ll be fine–the mouth of the alley is empty, it’ll strike the building across the way–except someone walks into the projected path. A young woman, smiling, looking at the person behind her, braid of brown hair a different shade entirely from Rin’s. And yet.

Even if Kakashi wanted to call out a warning, it’d be too slow–his eye can see at super speed, but his body can’t always react the same. His voice chokes up, anyway.

He’s going to watch this young woman struck down and it’s his fault.

(It’s always his fault)

A hand darts out, impossibly fast. Inhumanly fast. In between the path of the bullet and the young woman’s head.

Instead of puncturing through, just another flimsy layer of flesh and blood before ending a life, the bullet crumples–crashing headlong into an unmovable object–before falling harmlessly to the sidewalk in a tinny clink.

The young woman (not Rin not Rin, still alive, not Rin) turns around, tugs the hand and the person attached forward, away from the mouth of the alley–not that there are anymore bullets flying–and Kakashi sees him.

Minato-sensei.

But not.

(Not sensei, not sensei, impossibly alive, not sensei)

There’s a blonde man with a bulletproof hand and inhumanly fast reflexes walking around with a striking likeness to his dead sensei.

If ever Kakashi being a private detective was meant for something, it would be this.


	6. Reasons To Keep Living + Unwritten Headcanons, anonymous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the schematics before everything blows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> part of my [Reasons To Keep Living](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6945079/chapters/25575810) 'verse

Father isn’t your actual father–you’re human, not stupid, no matter what the boar clan scoff within earshot–but that doesn’t mean he’s raised you any less. It’s Father’s teeth that have provided your meals and Father’s fur that keeps you warm. His deep growling voice the first thing you hear in the morning and the last you hear at night.

Of course, usually that voice is saying that maybe he’ll eat you tomorrow, we’ll see boy, don’t test me, but you know he doesn’t mean it.

He feels guilty, after all. He was the one that killed your real parents.

///

There was a stranger, before, a generation ago. Vastly different and not at all like the stranger here now, but somehow the same.

She came with nothing but the clothes on her back, looking for a miracle.

Maybe she found it, maybe she didn’t–who is to say? She disappeared into the forest and never came back.

///

The Emperor sends an army to Konoha for weapons strong enough to kill a god.

They are lead by the greatest hunter, a man more wolf than person–or so the rumors go.

The Emperor wants eternal life or, at the least, an undeniable show of force. The hunter wants simultaneously a lot less and a lot more: he wants to avenge his lost teacher.

///

Your family is the oldest in Konoha, but Konoha itself is a very young town–only five generations old.

Which is what confuses you: why did your ancestors choose to settle here?

Your family has hated–and been hated, if such a thing could be said–the forest for as long as they’ve been here. And yet, the walls of the town edge against the borders of the forest. For a people so obsessed with gaining power, why settle near the forest but never go inside?

There are secrets your family keep–even from you.

///

You are a stranger to these lands, and so it is not your place to say, but perhaps it is because you are a stranger that you can see with eyes unclouded.

This situation is a powder keg ready to blow. You’re not sure which side will light the spark first.

///

The god of the forest looks like a deer during the day and a living shadow at night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (the boar clan is unrelated to the Yamanaka clan, sadly)


	7. Stars Also Dream + Shikaku Unwritten Headcanons, donapoetrypassion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> some Shikaku headcanons for Stars Also Dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> part of my [Stars Also Dream](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7794919/chapters/17782258) 'verse

Yoshino Kinokawa is a civilian born member of the Genin Corps who has made a name for herself based mostly on two facts:

She is best friends with Ibiki Morino, who everyone knows is slated for T&I–if Seki Hijiri’s somewhat concerning and potentially nefarious plans for him come to fruition.

And every mission she is part of goes… weird.

Shikaku hears of her name long before he actually meets her: he’s looking forward to it.

///

It’s traditional, when seeking to court someone, to get approval from their parents.

By the time Shikaku thinks of doing so, war has already ravaged the land: Yoshino is the last Kinokawa.

The fields of their little farm is, in turns, burnt and flooded, pockmarks of explosions and metal shrapnel sticking out of the ground like a cruel parody of the crops that must have once grown here.

Later, after everything, Yoshino goes out to the farm just once.

Shikaku does not ask.

///

He loves Yoshino.

He will live for her and would die for her and has and will continue to kill for her–affection expressed through murder, as most shinobi do.

He loves her, he trusts her…

… but that doesn’t mean he can’t be suspicious, sometimes.

Growing up in a clan is a different experience from growing up in a civilian family, this he knows. But he also knows that Yoshino’s child-rearing methods are far closer to the former than the latter–though, still vastly different from both.

(If Shikaku knew more about the Fire Temple, he would have made the connection easily.)

///

His son and he are very similar, links in the chain of Nara clan heads–smart and practical and devoted–but Shikamaru has Yoshino’s temper, flaring bright and hot in moments before banking down to embers. Not diminished, but held back until needed.

Shikako goes cold, steely and deadly, revenge planned out twelve moves ahead, just like her father.

He is but one man, from a planet who has not even yet discovered space travel, but should this Empire encroach on what is his, he will not hesitate.


	8. Flip To The Last Page + Jashin, donapoetrypassion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the matter of Jashin in the [Flip To The Last Page](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11406030/chapters/25548288) 'verse

It was like nothing they had ever experienced before.

Shikako still remembers the Kyuubi with startling, crystal clarity–that dense, corrosive aura which haunts their nightmares to this day.

In the Land of Waves, she was the first to experience a jounin’s killing intent, freezing Shikamaru with fear while his team was painting a fence of all things.

Even though the ultimate victory had been won through compassion and not military might, it had been proof of concept: reinforcements assembled to dismantle Gatou’s empire. Something that was stress tested a worrying amount, with how frequently Shikako’s missions went awry.

But all of those, even the Kyuubi, were nothing compared to a god.

///

It wasn’t even like Gelel, really.

In the Dead Wastes of Wind Country, the differences between them were never more clear. Being told a song exists is not the same as hearing it for oneself.

And in those moments of heart-stopping panic it had hurt–had burned like staring directly in the sun–but he had gotten her back, if somewhat changed.

But that searing starlight had been incidental, the cost of interacting with beings with more power beyond comprehension: Gelel had been benign.

The same could never be said of Jashin.

///

The worst part, maybe, was that there was no warning.

Even with that damned Tsukuyomi–which had cut them off from each other, Shikamaru alone for the first time in his life knowing that the entire time his twin was being tortured and he could do nothing–there had been even the vaguest idea that it might happen.

One moment, he had been relieved that his sister’s S-ranked mission was simple intel gathering in a sleepy resort town, the next…

Death would have been a kindness.

///

When Shikaku Nara sees his daughter covered in blood and ash, slung over the back of her strongest deer summon, walking out of the razed and ruined remains of Land of Hot Springs, he knows he must go home even before the message comes from Konoha.

He doesn’t know what Shikako went through, but he knows both of his heirs are in dire straights.


	9. The Green Knight + Kingsman!POV, anonymous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kingsman's opinion of Vongola and the Lightning Guardian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> set in my [The Green Knight](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11371743/chapters/25458819) 'verse, which is itself a fusion with my [Trailblazers](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11365131/chapters/25441176) 'verse.
> 
> This will probably not make any sense without reading that first.

Merlin is old enough to remember the last time Kingsman interacted with Vongola. He hadn’t been Merlin then, just one of many technicians with the unfortunate luck to be Harry’s–Galahad’s–friend.

Which means he was as much on the field as Harry, as much witness to the bloody wreckage  that Vongola had wrought.

Arthur–Chester–hadn’t wanted to do anything. Hadn’t wanted to talk, much less fight, with Italy’s most powerful famiglia–had let that terrible crime go uncontested, unavenged.

Merlin had never met Vongola’s Nono, but he had heard of his reputation: a kind smile hiding a merciless, cutthroat mind.

He thinks–hopes, more like–that Vongola’s Decimo is not the same.

///

He walks away from the meeting bewildered, but tentatively optimistic.

“They’re children,” says Harry–Arthur, now, and how strange that is to think–and he’s not wrong, Kingsman is much reduced from Chester’s and Valentine’s actions. Merlin and Harry are the only ones left from the old guard, and they’re scrabbling to fill in the rest of the ranks as quickly as they can, but even still…

Vongola’s tenth generation are younger even than Galahad and Lancelot.

“Young does not mean easily led,” Merlin cautions, “or inexperienced.”

From what he’s heard Vongola has only become more powerful since the Decimo’s inheritance.

///

Galahad–Eggsy, that is–is the one who brings up the idea.

The knights that remain are being run ragged, Kingsman is long overdue to begin trials for more knights, but there aren’t enough knights to propose enough candidates. Without more candidates, trials can’t be held to get more knights.

A vicious cycle.

Even worse, if the current knights propose single candidates, the pool of competitors is less which means the quality goes down. If they propose multiple candidates, then in future trials their proposals won’t be their top picks… meaning their quality goes down.

They need knight quality competitors who don’t actually want to be knights.

“Vongola didn’t seem too bad,” Galahad says, when Merlin brings up the issue. Arthur favors the boy, but Merlin isn’t exempt of that either, “Isn’t that what alliances are for?”

He’s not wrong.

///

The Fulmine that Merlin first met was, in one word, sharp.

The Vongola cohort had been undeniably powerful despite their age and lack of professionalism, their uniform suits which they wore almost reluctantly. But while the gentlemen had been earnest and engaged, Fulmine looked every bit as lethal as her confirmed hit count and ready to attack if needed.

The Fulmine–the Azuma-san–that Merlin meets for the Gawain trials is both the same and nothing at all like that.

If there is a message being sent, he is not sure what it is.

///

After he’s sent the candidates away, Merlin takes a closer look at the punching bag Azuma-san punctured.

It wasn’t worn out, bulletproof fabric still new, and yet she hadn’t had a weapon with her. Just her bare hands.

He thinks he is on the edge of understanding something terribly dangerous.


	10. Arm in Arm + world building, anonymous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> some Shikako-centric world building in my PokemonxDoS!fusion [Arm in Arm (no better team than you and me)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6945079/chapters/25548135) 'verse

The Nara clan compound is not as calm and sedate in the mornings as their members appear to the public. Or, perhaps, their calm and sedate reputations is because they are so exhausted by their chaotic morning routine:

Everyday, the unlucky younger members of the clan go harvesting for medicine ingredients.

Which, perhaps, sounds like a mild and even, possibly, calming venture. After all, people throughout the Land of Fire–and even beyond–travel to pick berries from the Aburame clan orchards and buy their premium honey. And, perhaps, if it were just picking berries from trees, all would be well.

Trees don’t walk around, after all.

Trees don’t run away at the slightest hint of movement, or charge at unsuspecting harvesters, or indulge said harvesters for a few seconds before getting bored and galloping away while smaller trees nose at the harvesters’ pockets for treats or maybe chin scratches or maybe just to be irritating and get out of trouble with their giant adorable eyes.

Sawsbuck change with the seasons, as do their antlers–their velvet is what makes Nara brand medicine so much more effective.

At the cost of so many younger Nara clan members’ dwindling patience.

—

Bizarrely, for a village with such a large and growing population, there are many abandoned sectors.

The most notorious being the Uchiha clan compound, of course, but there are other, smaller houses and neighborhoods that are just empty.

Of humans, of course.

Shikako doesn’t know what possesses her–figuratively, that is–to explore the Haunted Mansion in southern Konoha.

No, that’s a lie, she probably wanted to find a ghost.

Ghosts imply souls, imply something beyond death, and she already knows that exists, but still. She wants confirmation.

Or reassurance, maybe.

At the end of it, she comes out not with a ghost type, but a Growlithe that reminds her to focus on living than dying.

—

Shikako is the only one who sees it in Land of Rivers, then Land of Wind. She supposes it’s because its dark purple skin blends into the shadows, but all she can see are its sparkling red eyes and wide, sharp grin.

It guides her–and, in turn, their makeshift team–towards the shrine of Gelel where they arrive in time to stop Haido’s plan.

At the cost of Shikako’s life.

(It’s okay, it’s only temporary.)


End file.
